Elizabeth Morgan | Discussing the EU/Caribbean partnership

The appointments calendar for the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, shows that she is currently in Barbados, and I understand that she is participating in a meeting with Ministers of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). This joint EU/CARIFORUM meeting commenced on October 11.

The current chair of CARIFORUM, from July 2022 to June 2023, is Antigua and Barbuda and the responsible minister is Hon E. Paul Chet Green, minister of foreign affairs, immigration and trade. This meeting, it seems, is addressing the partnership between the EU and CARIFORUM. This would include the deepening partnership envisaged in the new post-Cotonou Agreement, which was initialled by the lead negotiators in April 2021, but is still to be signed.

This joint meeting is taking the form of a political dialogue and is expected to address, among other things, the status of the post-Cotonou Agreement, development cooperation under the new overseas development assistance arrangement known as Global Europe – Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) from which the Caribbean and other OACPS members now receive development support through the EU.

You may recall that the European Development Fund (EDF), which specifically funded the OACPS countries, was terminated. The EU and CARIFORUM are still implementing projects under the 11th EDF with some focusing on climate change and health.

I assume that the Caribbean countries will take this opportunity to discuss issues of specific interest to the region, such as middle-income status and graduation from concessionary development support, environmental vulnerability and climate change, building resilience, and tax blacklisting in international financial services with more countries added to the EU’s list. At the hemispheric level, they could be looking at the EU-Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) relationship. I expect global issues to include the economic, health, and security impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

I note that countries in the region have been holding bilateral political dialogues with EU Delegations as required under the 2020 Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA). The EU Delegation met with the Commission of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in February 2022; Jamaica and the EU met on July 20; and Belize’s meeting was on September 20. Guyana and Suriname had their EU dialogues in December 2021. These would be part of the preparatory process for a meeting with the commissioner, but I would expect that CARIFORUM, as a region, had its own preparatory meeting more recently.

STATUS OF THE POST-COTONOU AGREEMENT

In my article of July 20 on CARICOM and the OACPS, I did speak to the delay in the signing of the new post-Cotonou Agreement. This delay is further extended and was addressed in July at the EU Parliament in which members expressed their concern and urged progress. The Czech Republic, the current EU president, also wants to see progress. It appears that in the EU Council, Hungary remains the main stumbling block on issues related to migration.

At the local level, a Christian conservative group has raised concern about Caribbean Protocol’s Article 48 on gender equality and empowerment of girls and women, specifically paragraph seven, which they feel could be promoting alternative gender lifestyles.

As I understand it, the treatment of these human rights issues were among the priorities for OACPS countries, and thus the negotiations were hard fought and, for consensus, required use of internationally agreed language and references to international instruments acceptable to the OACPS, including the Caribbean negotiators.

I, personally, believe that we have to face the realities of the world in which we now live and organise ourselves to address current global social challenges from our own national policy positions and perspectives.

The partnership between the EU and CARIFORUM is still governed by the extended 2020 Cotonou Partnership Agreement. On the new agreement, the EU has a problem to solve.

THE EPA

I expect that the current meeting will address the implementation of the CARIFORUM/EU Economic partnership Agreement (EPA) now in its 14th year. The second EPA five-year review seems to be quite protracted. I recall that CARIFORUM Ministers issued a statement in November 2021 raising concerns about findings in the European Commission’s study. With the UK now out of the EU, CARIFORUM’s trade in goods with the EU 27 needs to be increased and trade in services, it seems to me, is yet to be launched in any meaningful way. Visas for certain categories of service providers continue to be an issue.

I saw that a meeting of the EPA Consultative Committee, involving non-State actors, was held in Barbados in May. This is a monitoring group for the operation of the EPA. At this meeting, Richard Jones of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, a regional non-governmental organisation, questioned this Agreement’s effectiveness and called for a much deeper analysis of whether objectives were being met.

I hope that the media will have access to an outcome document from this Joint EU/CARIFORUM Ministerial Meeting. It has been challenging to follow CARIFORUM’s work programme.

I understand that the CARIFORUM directorate should now have an information officer and a website should be imminent. The EU remains an important development partner for the Caribbean and information to the public is important.

- Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com